


Puzzles

by artbyweb86



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Buck has to solve something, Buck is very confused, Christopher is a teenager now, Christopher is adorable, Eddie is very sneaky, Firehouse 118 Family (9-1-1), M/M, Puzzles, i'm not crying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-29
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:22:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,924
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24976051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/artbyweb86/pseuds/artbyweb86
Summary: Buck keeps receiving little pieces of paper from people at rescue scenes. They have letters on them. Is it some kind of puzzle? He is really confused.
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan “Buck” Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 209





	Puzzles

They had just finished a call and Buck was putting away supplies. He felt a tap on his arm.

He turned around to reveal a young girl, whom they had just treated. Only minor scrapes and bruises after falling out of a tree she had climbed at the park. 

She was smiling and handed him a small piece of paper.

“You have to keep it for later.” She said, before skipping away and back to her mother.

He watched her go with confusion and then glanced at the folded piece of paper. 

He opened it to reveal a:

**?**

Flipping it over revealed no more clues.

Question mark indeed.

Not sure why, but feeling like it might be important, he opened his wallet and placed it inside.

On their next call, they put out a car fire on the highway.

The owner of said vehicle had no phone to call anyone. Lost in the fire as he had to practically dive out as the car caught quickly. Bobby offered to drop him off at the hotel he was staying at, which happened to be at the next exit.

Before he got out, he smiled at Buck and handed him a paper, and said, “keep for later.”

He glanced at Eddie who was sitting with them, who just shrugged him shoulders, and craned his neck to see what the paper revealed.

All it had on it was:

**K**

Eddie looked at it, and then back at the guy, who waved in thanks, before disappearing into the building.

“That was weird.”

“Yeah, the girl that we helped last call gave me a paper that had a question mark on it.”

The day seemed to get busier and busier with calls.

An elevator malfunction in a high-rise trapping ten people. Luckily the elevator was only stuck between the lobby and the first floor. But they had been stuck for several hours before anyone noticed.

No injuries and everyone was grateful to get out of the stuffy space.

Buck was taking a drink when two of the women they had just rescued, approached him. They were giggling a little, both had papers in their hands.

His stomach dropped. They were going to give him their number. He used to get that all the time when he first started, but he was more of a flirt back then and liked the attention.

He was taken now. He was with Eddie.

He was prepared to turn them away, when they just handed him the papers. Giggling again, they smiled and both said at the same time, “you have to keep for later.” They walked away joining the rest of their group. They were whispering and glancing back at him, before moving towards the stairs.

He glanced at his hand, which revealed four folded pieces of paper. He opened them.

**L L Y Y**

Still very, very confused, he stuck them in his wallet with the other two he had.

They went back to the station and were all granted an hour break. On 24 hour shifts, Bobby sometimes is able to pull strings to let them be offline for a little bit, especially if calls have been heavy with little downtime. Of course they will always be on call if a large emergency comes up.

Eddie convinced Buck to forgo Bobby’s cooking for once and dragged him to a little diner across the street. They were fast service and often helped out the fire department in a pinch. 

Eddie grabbed the only empty table while Buck went to the bathroom, trusting Eddie already knew what he liked.

Returning from the bathroom he sat down. Their drinks were already on the table and Eddie confirmed that he already ordered. Their conversation was light and easy. They also sat in silence, holding hands, enjoying the steady buzz of conversation around them. It was their time to relax before the chaos of the day picked up again.

They had finished eating and were waiting for the bill. Eddie moving a hand to his pocket, and panicked a little.

“Oh, shoot! I left my phone in my locker. I promised Chris I would call him. He wanted to tell me how his report went. Do you mind paying the bill? I’ll get it next time. Thanks!” 

He leaned in a for a quick kiss before dashing out the door and across the street.

He motioned to the waitress, asking for the bill.

She came over and placed a small piece of paper on the table.

“Your bill has already been taken care of. Enjoy the rest of your day!”

Before he could say anything more, one person from each table in the diner got up and placed a piece of paper next to the one the waitress put down.

Ok, this was getting really weird.

He opened them one by one.

**O M O W D T U E I P**

He was so confused still. He looked up, but no one was looking his way.

Placing the papers in his wallet, he thanked the waitress again, left her a nice tip, and headed back to the station. 

It looked like Eddie had just finished talking with Chris and before he could ask about him or mention the papers, they were being called to a rescue.

The rest of the day went smoothly. No more paper encounters. Just regular people thanking them for doing their job.

He was sitting on the couches looking up random facts about elevators when he heard the familiar click of crutches.

Since it was near the end of shift, Carla usually brings Chris to the station now, so he and Eddie could take him to school together. 

Eddie was rummaging through the fridge. He heard the familiar noise too and a big smile brightened his face before he dashed down the stairs to greet his boy.

“Chris!”

Chris giggled and with a little help, he managed the climb the stairs quickly. Carla trailed behind, holding a small gift bag.

Buck smiled as he saw his favorite Diaz boy approaching him.

“Hi Buddy! Are you ready for school?”

“Oh yeah!” 

They high fived. More giggles.

Chris reached into his pocket and handed him familiar looking pieces of paper.

Buck took them and opened them.

**A B C**

“Bucky, do you have the other papers?”

He nodded, already pulling them out of his wallet.

“It’s a puzzle. You gotta solve it!” Chris clasping his hands in excitement.

He took the jumble of letters and placed them on the table in front of him.

It looked just like that. A jumble of letters.

He was pretty good at puzzles, so he was up for the challenge. He decided to put them in alphabetic order first.

**? ABC DE I K LL M OO P T U W YY**

What? Nothing popped out at him, so he started rearranging the letters.

**KILL**

**DILL**

**PILL**

They made words, but that was definitely not it.

**WILL**

That one made a little more sense. He put that aside.

He kept at it, not noticing the rest of the crew had made their way up.

He saw **BUCK**. His heart started racing. What could it mean?

He moved the other letters around, it was getting a little easier to put stuff together.

He figured out **YOU** and **ME**.

There was an extra **Y** , he couldn’t figure out where that went, so he put that aside for now.

He stared at the last remaining letters, confused for a second, until he moved them around and felt tears spring to his eyes.

**ADOPT**

**Buck, Will You Adopt Me?**

Chris took the **Y** and placed it after his name. 

**Bucky, Will You Adopt Me?**

“Oh, Chris! Yes! Of course!”

He pulled him into a hug and he could hear sniffles next to him. He glanced over to his husband who was wiping a tear from his eye. 

It suddenly clicked in his head.

“Were you the one who gave the people at our calls the letters?”

Eddie nodded, a watery smile.

“It was all Chris’s idea though.”

“Buddy! You are so clever! And Eddie, you are so sneaky. How did I not notice you giving papers to people? Ok, what do we gotta do to get the process rolling? There is probably a lot of paper work and stuff like that right?”

He started scrolling though his phone to look it up, when Chris plopped the gift bag in his lap.

“Open it! But be careful, it’s delicate.” Chris was bouncing in his seat.

“What’s this? It’s not my birthday.” 

Now frantically trying to remember if he missed something important. Christopher’s was last week, he has just turned thirteen. 

“Just open it, silly!”

He pulled out a rectangular object, somewhat flimsy, wrapped in tissue paper. He tore off the wrapping paper to reveal a large manilla envelope, not labeled.

He opened it and pulled out some papers. Turning it around, fresh tears sprung to his eyes.

**Adoption Of One Christopher Diaz To One Evan Buckley Diaz**

There were little sticky notes arrows pointing to various spots on the pages.

His vision blurred as he was trying to comprehend what he was looking at. He covered his face with his hands, feeling suddenly overwhelmed.

“Oh, mi amor! It’s ok! All you have to do is sign it and it will be official!” Eddie whispered into his ear.

He felt Christopher hugging him. He reached out blindly and tugged him closer.

“Bucky, don’t be sad. You don’t have to do it now if you don’t want to.”

“I’m not sad. I am so happy. So very happy! No, I do want to. Where is a pen? Who has a pen?”

He looked around for a pen, not finding one in the vicinity. He looked up and suddenly realized he had a whole audience.

Bobby, Hen and Chimney and the rest of the crew. But also Maddie, Athena, Micheal and Josh had joined as well. Several of them had their phones out recording the whole thing. They were all wiping their faces of tears.

More tears threatened to fall as he watched them all scramble to find a pen.

He was laughing now. He was so happy. His family got witness everything.

Chimney found one and rushed over to hand it to him.

Eddie pointed to the places that he needed to sign. He did with enthusiasm.

“When did you have the time to do all this. Doesn’t it take time?”

“It was my birthday wish, so I asked Dad to help me. We got it done on my birthday.”

His heart swelled even more. How is it possible to love someone so much, that it physically hurts?

“Can I call you Dad now? I like Papa for you. Since Dad is already dad.”

Yup, he did it again. Broke his heart into a million pieces and put them back together.

“I would love that Chris. You can still call me Buck or Bucky. Whatever you are comfortable with.”

The crew all cheered. Someone had popped a confetti stream and a cake seemed to appear out of nowhere.

_**Happy Adoption Day!** _  
_**3/1/2025** _  
_**Bucky and Chris** _  
_**The Diaz Family Forever** _

He ate cake and laughed and cried a million more times that day.

He beamed at his little family.

He could call Chris his son now.

He has a husband who is the best.

He has a son.

He is a father.

Is this real life? He pinched himself. Yup!

He has a son!

**Author's Note:**

> I am not crying, you are!
> 
> I finally wrote something about Buck where he doesn't get hurt or is sad about his past.
> 
> Only bright things for his future. One can only hope for Season 4. Come on writers!
> 
> Comments and Kudos are always welcome.


End file.
